I avoid moving like the living plague, and I’m one of those ridiculously organized people who have everything sorted, cleaned, packed and labeled a week before the move. But my mum? I have helped her move five times in the last ten years, and every single time she has packed MAYBE two boxes when the truck pulls up to the house. You don’t want to know the most memorable of those moves. (*shudders*) Anyway, welcome back to the land of the blogging. Enjoy your new home!

Welcome back! Just a head’s up: I am unsubscribing to your blog. I receive it twice. Don’t be offended, I will still receive it once and will still stop by, read, and comment! Just didn’t want you to feel bad like I feel when people unsubscribe. I don’t know how it let me on twice anyway….

Well, Julie, I’m afraid it’s TOTALLY real. I pulled a stool off the top of the first load and it fell off and hit the side of my face; one of the 1/2″ plastic legs (razor blade-sharp) sliced into my ear. Bleeding all over my hand and handkerchief. It was crazy! A good story though, for sure.

So good to be back to the safety of my laptop … and away from the duct tape!! 😉

We moved to New Zealand in 1980 for a year away. My whole family packed up for 12 months overseas. It was in the time before suit cases had wheels and bags were not checked to final destinations…it was in the time when you still dressed up to fly on airplanes…it was in the time when I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to kick the seat back ahead of you…it was in the time that I didn’t know that the call button pushed repeatedly infuriated the “stewardess”…I don’t know how my parents managed to get 3 children under the age of 12 half way across the world and retain any sanity! Anyhoo, I’m glad they did. Turned out to be one of the best years of my life. Good luck in your new digs! And welcome back to the blog world. You have been missed.

Wow, NZ would be fantastic. Bet that weather was fabulous, huh? I know what you’re talking about with all those rules back then. I come from a family of seven kids – all a year apart – and we had one big vacation when we were kids: went to Disneyland on a UPRR train (parents both worked for the UP). We were dressed up in button down or polo shirts and pants with our “good” shoes. Ah, the good old days, eh?

Thanks for the welcome back! We’re not quite neighbors, but close. I am in So Cal now – having moved from Nor Cal.

Welcome back! I missed you! For some reason both my phone and desktop refused to load the ear picture. Its probably rejecting the gore on my behalf. It does mean I am quite clueless about the extent of your injury – I hope its something that will heal well!

It’s probably best that you couldn’t load the pic. It wasn’t horrible, but bad enough that I couldn’t do anything to fix it myself.

Basically, the small leg of a foot stool ripped almost through my left ear lobe. Fortunately, I had a great urgent care doctor who was able to put it back together and carefully glue it in place. Healing is going well, but it should leave a nice scar for storytelling! 😉

MJ, I was wondering why you are not posting anything new. I hope you must be happy that, now at last the whole process of Packing & Moving (In random order ) is over.
The last picture is not loading in to my browser. I hope its size is too large.

Hi MJ — Congratulations on finishing your move! The final picture didn’t come through, but based on your description, I feel grateful. I’ve moved many times in my life, and it is never easy. The move is only the first part, as you know! The rest is finding where on earth you put all your stuff. Best of luck, and best wishes on your new home!

Moving is SUCH hard work! Last time we moved I was pregnant with my fourth child. Once we got everything into the house I vowed to never move again.

I had some friends that moved into a house across from a mortuary. The husband sat down on the front step after the move and said, “If I ever move out of this house it’s because I’m moving there.” He pointed to the mortuary. LOL

Wow. Are you going all Van Gogh on us? I’ve done a few country-to-country moves. They’re stressful. On our last one, movers moved us. And packed. It was from Thailand-Canada, and it was paid for as part of our overseas’ contract.

Hey guy pal MJ,
Er, no horror stories of moving, just yours and sorry I couldn’t view your last photo image either.
Glad you are back and now, throw some dirt on your toes and grow some moss! hehe, rolling stones gather no moss as they say, so quick, dirt, fertilizer and water on those toes, man!

Glad to read that you were busy moving while we were driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway and rock hounding in NC. I was afraid that blogging companions would think that I stopped reading.

I have 2 memorable UHaul experiences. When I moved back to CA from Seattle, I drove alone with a small UHaul. Being 20ish, I just pulled off from Highway 5 each of two nights and rolled out my sleeping bag on the side of a field. I bet I’d end up in jail if I did that today.

When we planned to move from Alexandria to our cabin in WV, my father & I drove the 250 mile round trip 3 times in 24 hours. The cabin was full of “give away stuff” (i.e. people did not want it in their homes, so they gave it to us) and our condo full of family antiques. Each trip we “swapped” furniture, until the cabin had all the stuff we wanted, the condo was basically furnished until we made the final move a month later, the Salvation Army got a truck load, and some friends were the next for the “give away stuff”. We plan to be buried in the woods some day, so hopefully no more moves.
Oscar

Funniest moving story of a million in one moves (Ok – I exaggerate, but there have been more than plenty. See my moving manifesto for details on how I cope) But funniest was packing up a truck sky high in Cairo, Egypt and moving across the city. Truck had a flat tire. The driver got out and began jack up the truck with everyone still in it and when we began to protest he tried to get passers by to pick up the truck so he could change the tire. True Story. Everything began falling into Cairo traffic, which is a story all its own. It was like a really good comedy sketch.

Whao! I hope you are okay!
I was injured in a move once. It’s kinda gross. I fell, landing on one knee in our rock driveway. A rock had almost completely removed a very deep flap of skin, which in what I think was a bit of shock, demanded to cut off myself with a somewhat rusty pair of shears. Yeah. Cooler heads prevailed and I ended up in urgent care – and I missed the rest of the move!
It was so worth it.